Contents

Background

Personality

From what has been seen of Inoichi throughout the series, he has a calm and perceptive nature, generally staying calm under pressure. He is also very analytical being able to put together the information he got from his interrogation to aid Shizune in uncovering the secret behind the Six Paths of Pain. He has also been described as having an indulgent and gentlemanly disposition.[1]

Appearance

Inoichi in Part I.

Inoichi has long blond hair reaching into his back, which he wears spiky on top and ending in a long ponytail, blue-green eyes and strong facial features, which include a well defined jaw line. In Part I, Inoichi is seen wearing the standard flak jacket over a black outfit, complete with hand-guards, forehead protector and a sleeveless red haori. In Part II, he wears the standard outfit of the Konoha Interrogation Unit, complete with a long black overcoat. During the Fourth Shinobi World War he dons the standard uniform of the Konohagakure shinobi.

Abilities

Inoichi causing the invading shinobi to attack each other.

Inoichi, who is presumably the head of the Yamanaka clan, has shown himself to be a highly capable shinobi. He is well-versed in all of his clan's secret techniques as witnessed during the Invasion of Konoha where Inoichi skilfully performed the Mind Body Disturbance Technique, causing the invaders he encountered to fight against their own allies. Further proof of his skills is shown from his status as an interrogator in the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force during the Invasion of Pain where he was able to skilfully probe the mind of one Pain's Amegakure loyalist and go through an entire days worth of his memories in mere seconds with the aid of a device, even though Pain had set up mental blocks and traps in the shinobi's head.

His abilities have also been praised by others such as Aoba Yamashiro, who while attempting to interrogate Kisame Hoshigaki, stated that he was not as skilled as Inoichi in this area,[4] and Tenga of Kumogakure who was greatly looking forward to working under his command.[5] He has also shown the ability to communicate telepathically with other people. His skill with telepathic communication is such that he contacted and relayed a message to the entire Allied Shinobi Forces, despite its vast size for twenty seconds even though he stated he could only do it for ten, suffering only a nosebleed and fatigue. He is also skilled at tracking targets through their chakra trail, as long as the target's chakra signature stays the same.[6]

Part I

Chūnin Exam Arc

Inoichi first appeared in the anime alongside his former team-mates during the Chūnin Exam festivals. They were sitting in a bar where Inoichi was being teased for having a daughter instead of a son.

Invasion of Konoha Arc

He appeared again during the invasion of Konoha, protecting the village together with Shikaku Nara and Chōza Akimichi. He uses the Mind Body Disturbance Technique to cause the invading shinobi to fight amongst themselves. Inoichi then says fighting alongside his team-mates Chōza and Shikaku reminded him of old times when they were renown across the nations. Chōza then remarks that they still were.

Part II

Invasion of Pain Arc

When Ibiki Morino proved unable to learn anything about Pain from Yūdachi, he called on Inoichi for assistance. He probed Yūdachi's mind, rapidly going through his memories before arriving at the revelation that Pain had requested of Yūdachi: dead bodies. Before he could think further on this, Ino arrived to inform him of Pain's attack on Konoha, and the village was soon afterwards destroyed. Shizune was killed in the chaos by the Human Path and, using the information Shizune had learned before her death, Inoichi realised that Pain was animating dead bodies in a manner similar to his own clan's mental manipulation techniques, thereby meaning the true Pain was in a remote location somewhere relatively close by.

While looking for Pain's real body along with Shikaku and a shinobi from the Hyūga clan, they ran into Naruto Uzumaki. Inoichi asked if Naruto had defeated Pain, to which Naruto answered that it didn't matter and stated that he had found Pain's true body while in Sage Mode. He asked them not to follow him, as he wanted to talk to Pain alone. Inoichi stated angrily that talking didn't solve anything, but, after a brief argument, Shikaku told Inoichi to just let Naruto go, to which Inoichi hesitantly agreed. Inoichi along with the rest of the village, were overjoyed at Naruto's return to the village.

Konoha History Arc

Main article: Konoha History Arc
Inoichi is placed in charge of interrogating Hanare after she was captured and brought to Konohagakure. After seeing a memory of Kakashi Hatake as a child in her thoughts, he sends her over to him and see if he remembers her as their other methods of interrogation so far had failed.

Confining the Jinchūriki Arc

In the anime, Inoichi is seen attending the war council meeting that Tsunade calls alongside Shikaku. He later attends a private meeting that Tsunade calls in her temporary office as they discuss the impending war.

Adventures at Sea Arc

Shinobi World War Arc

Inoichi and the Intelligence Division.

Inoichi was placed in charge of the Intelligence Division. When Aoba Yamashiro returned from his mission, Inoichi questioned him about his time on the Island Turtle stating that it seemed as though they had a rough time. His first act within the war, was to set up a barrier with Ao with which the Sensor Division could use to monitor the battlefields from headquarters.

Inoichi and Ao creating the Sensing System Technique barrier.

He later relayed new information to the members of his division in the fields about the enemy forces travelling underground. After the Alliance realised that the First Division was soon going to be overwhelmed by the enemies' forces, Inoichi relayed the new battle strategy as created by Shikaku to the divisions. He then reported that Shizune had also split up her division equally in order to better attend to the wounded shinobi on each battlefield.

When headquarters needed to get in contact with Darui, Inoichi used a variant of his telepathy by placing his hand on Shikaku's forehead but told him he could not hold the connection for long. Nevertheless, this allows Shikaku himself to telepathically contact Darui, Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji, where he told them of his strategy to seal Kinkaku. After Kinkaku was sealed, Inoichi praised Ino's uses of the Mind Body Switch Technique as her use and release of the technique had increased greatly.

As the night dragged on, Inoichi received reports from multiple divisions that shinobi from the Alliance were being assassinated and that they could not find the enemy. After being asked by Shikaku what the corpses look like, he reports that they all died from external wounds and not from covert methods like poisoning. After receiving a report from the Logistical Support and Medical Division it was revealed that it was in fact members of White Zetsu Army who had transformed into shinobi from the alliance and were killing other shinobi and causing chaos.

After Naruto and B were allowed to head to battlefield by A and Tsunade, Inoichi once again used his telepathy to allow Shikaku to converse with the two jinchūriki. He is later contacted by Dodai who asks him to allow Naruto to talk to B and the Eight-Tails. Inoichi then asks Naruto how comes he wasn't with B before patching him through. Later, after a tremor was felt all the way at headquarters, Inoichi reported that it was due to a meteorite falling from the sky where the Fourth Division was located. He later facilitated Shikaku's contact with Genma and the Hokage Guard Platoon, instructing them to transport Mei Terumī to the front lines using the Flying Thunder God Technique.

After headquarters received intelligence about the situation on the battlefield with Naruto, B and Tobi, Shikaku asked Inoichi to relay a message to the entire Allied Shinobi Forces in fifteen seconds. Though the other members of the Intelligence Division protested, stating it would put too great a strain on him, Inoichi told Shikaku that what he was asking was ridiculous and he would only give him ten seconds. Contacting the entire alliance, he relayed the message and spurred on the troops to aid Naruto and B. Suffering a nosebleed afterwards, a fatigued Inoichi stated that it seemed he wasn't good at speeches after all and ended up taking twenty seconds instead of ten and apologised. Later, when the Sensing System Technique water sphere in HQ became distorted, Inoichi hastily followed through with Shikaku's order to check out the situation. After Shikaku had formulated a strategy during the time Naruto used to chide the opposition, Inoichi enabled Shikaku to communicate this to the entire Alliance. Inoichi later coordinated the various attacks as they attacked Madara, Obito, and the Ten-Tails.

Movies

Naruto 5: Blood Prison

During Naruto's flashback to the members of the village when he was gathering natural energy to enter Sage Mode, Inoichi can be seen amongst the villagers.

Trivia

'Ino' comes from inoshishi (猪), meaning 'boar'. ichi (一) means 'one,' 'first' and is a common ending for boys' names, referring to the first-born son. 'Yamanaka' (山中) means 'among the mountains'. Wild boar are heavily associated with mountains in Japan and are even called the 'whales of the mountains' (山鯨, yamakujira), because of the amount of meat they produce.